Kevin Drum wonders whether there’s a single genuine Obamacare horror story out there, given that virtually every yarn promoted by Republicans or conservatives about people hurt by the Affordable Care Act has deflated like a pricked balloon on the merest examination.

It’s a very good question, inspired by the latest horror story bloomer – the tale of one Julia Boonstra of Michigan, wholesaled by the Koch-founded conservative organization Americans for Prosperity. In a political ad being run by AFP against a Democratic senate candidate in Michigan, Boonstra asserts that “Obamacare” has made her leukemia treatment “unaffordable” and “jeopardized” her health.

But when Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post checked out her story, he found it didn’t hold up….

Boonstra’s case is just the latest of a very long line of deflatable horror stories. We’ve debunked a passel of them here….

Brian Beutler: Are Republicans even trying? Another Obamacare horror story bites the dust

Given how horrible Obamacare supposedly is, it’s a little bizarre that Republicans and their allies have such a hard time finding victims who are unambiguously worse off as a result of the law.

GOP leaders trotted out a woman named Bette during their official response to President Obama’s State of the Union address. Once reporters with even rudimentary understanding of the law began poking around, they discovered that Bette was more a victim of anti-Obamacare histrionics than of the genuine article.

The ad makers at the conservative pressure group Americans for Prosperity are the Jerry Bruckheimers of atmospherically devastating campaign spots attacking Democrats who voted for Obamacare, but like nearly all Bruckheimer films the plots of these ads fall apart upon the mildest scrutiny.

American agriculture has experienced a boom, with market values of crops, livestock and total agricultural products reaching record highs even as the amount of U.S. farmland declined, according to a new government survey.

Continuing a long-term trend, the number of U.S. farms dropped to 2.1 million in 2012, about a 4 percent drop from five years earlier. But some of the bigger farms got bigger. The average farm grew from 418 to 434 acres.

…. All told, U.S. farms sold nearly $395 billion in products in 2012, a third more than five years earlier. That averaged to about $187,000 per farm – or an increase of $52,000 over 2007 totals.

With Ukraine’s embattled president and opposition agreeing to a deal that will bring early elections, the White House expressed guarded optimism on Friday that the accord will bring an end to the political violence in Kiev and lead to lasting changes in Kiev.

In a statement, the White House said the agreement, which was facilitated by France, Germany and Poland and reached after all-night talks, was consistent with the Obama administration’s call for deescalating the violence, constitutional reform and early elections.

“… who generally has so many interests in conflict that it’s a wonder he doesn’t get perpetual cramp in his 1099s, has landed at Fox News, where nobody gives much of a fk about ethics, or the truth, or anything else that gives Roger Ailes a pilonoidal cyst, and he doesn’t have to worry about those sad dingleberries of credibility that still cling to his career.”

President Obama sits at his desk in the Treaty Room Office of the Private Residence and reads one of 10 letters from the public selected for his personal reading from the volume of mail he receives, Feb. 22, 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama pulls out the chair for First Lady Michelle Obama at the Governors Ball in the State Dining Room of the White House, Feb. 22, 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama dance while the band Earth, Wind and Fire performs at the Governors Ball in the East Room of the White House, Feb. 22, 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)

****

President Obama waits in the Butlers’ Pantry before he is introduced during the National Governors Association meeting at the White House, Feb. 22, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama answers questions from the National Governors Association in the State Dining Room of the White House, Feb. 22, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama talks with Vice President Biden in the Oval Office, Feb. 22, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama listens during a meeting in the Oval Office, Feb. 22, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)

****

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama talk in the Green Room of the White House before hosting a Smithsonian Museum of African American History reception in the East Room, Feb. 22, 2012 (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama greet guests during a reception in honor of the groundbreaking of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, in the East Room of the White House, Feb. 22, 2012 (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama greet students from the Brooklyn Montessori school at the ground breaking ceremony for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. on February 22, 2012

First Lady Michelle Obama hugs Piper Shillingford, 4, from a Brooklyn Montessori School after she presented a donation at the ground breaking ceremony

President Obama throws a basketball in the air during departure photos with Samantha Power, Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights, and her family in the Oval Office, Feb. 22, 2013. Watching the President, from left, are: Rian Power-Sunstein, Cass Sunstein, Samatha Power, Declan Sunstein, James Bourke, and Veronica Delany (Photo by Pete Souza)

First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Mehmet Oz learn a dance routine with members of the Terence C. Reilly School No. 7 dance group during a taping of the “Dr. Oz Show” at the 30 Rock Studios in New York, N.Y., Feb. 22, 2013 (Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

First Lady Michelle Obama shows off her dance moves during an Evolution of Mom Dancing skit with Jimmy Fallon on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on Friday, February 22, 2013

Good morning TOD, Chips,BTs, other lurkers, everyone.
Delurking to say THANK YOU Hopefruit2 for greeting us lurkers every day along with the rest of the TOD family. You never forget us. I know because I cannot get through a day without coming to this community for the real news. THANK YOU ALL!

James Meredith, a pioneer of the civil rights movement who became the first black student to successfully enroll at the University of Mississippi and was shot and injured during a March Against Fear, at some point in the late 60’s his politics took a sharp swing to the right. Meredith became a Republican and renounced his role in the civil rights movement, opposed the holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., staunchly opposed affirmative action and became an adviser to southern conservative Senator Jesse Helms. WOW!!! :shock::shock::shock:

Yes he is still alive and in all my research I cannot find out what exactly changed him. He ran against Adam Clayton Powell in the 60’s and lost. He ran against a Democratic candidate I believe in Ga in the early 70’s and was embraced (for obvious selfish reasons) by the Republican party. I cannot believe that a man of his stature who endured so much abuse from white racists could align himself with a Party who essentially enabled the very people who wanted to kill him. Crazy stuff!!!

The GOP do not denounce these kind of comments because they use these racist sentiments to whip up the racist fervor of the folks who vote for them…and 2ndly I think they share these sentiments they just do not say them/as for the minority members of the GOP..I do not know why they remain members… they try to make a case that not ALL GOP members think this way/but actions speak louder than words/ look at the policies that the GOP pursue/look at the votes that they take…this is the GOP. all stop!

In addition…I do not know why Blow feels the need to show a both sides do it in his article…I hate when pundits feel the need to offset personal criticism by using a both sides argument….Democrats for the most part do not use overt racism as a platform to garner votes/

What I know is that for five years, GOP, in and out of office, sat mum as the lowest of the low in their party, and often times members of Congress and others holding office have uttered some of the same ugliness by this washed up music person, whose name I refuse to give any power to.

THIS: "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” –MLK– http://t.co/37gKYfWPSC

This will be a brief visit, as I have to resurrect my sense of discipline and complete the evaluation of 22 written entries I’ve committed to do for a friend. Results (1st place,etc.) AND commentary on each entry HAVE to be uploaded by Monday so I’m out of procrastination time. Don’t tell my friend I booked all of last week off work to work on this, but was sidetracked daily by Chipsticks and Nerdy…… O, and you guys with your excessive comments. Hey, that means it was all your fault(s). There! I feel less guilty already! :lol:

Whenever I see pictures of the Oval Office in 2009, and then after the Obama makeover, I am amazed at the warmth of it now, and the coldness of it before. I much prefer the warmth now…….it looks inviting, not off putting. Of course…..it echoes the personality of the occupant now.

Everyone have a good Saturday. Thanks for the informative Rise and Shine. Kiev is volatile…….Has Yevtuchenko really left?

Good morning all of TODville. I love the R&S with all the pictures and information. Earlier this winter I was complaining alittle bit that we didn’t have much snow. Well I should have kept my mouth shut. Today will be spent shoveling our porch as my husband does the driveway and sidewalk before a big storm hits tomorrow. We are dealing with the same amount all you east of us are but its enough for me.

Yes indeed. FLOTUS and POTUS are ratings gold – especially when they portrayed in a positive light because that’s what the viewers WANT.

Meanwhile, CNN saw one of its lowest ratings this week (airing interview with child killer GZ). I’ve also heard that MSNBC’s ratings have increased since they eased up on the Libertarian-Snowden propaganda/PBO bashing, and instead focused on Christie/Bridgegate.

The Ukraine Parliament voted Saturday afternoon to impeach President Viktor Yanukovych, capping a day of extraordinary events in the nation’s capital here.

Lawmakers also voted to hold elections on May 25, and after the vote began singing the national anthem.

Crowds of anti-government protesters took control of the government quarter, while lawmakers in parliament appointed their own members to top government spots, and news broke that the besieged President had fled the city, possibly even the country.

Opposition factions also took over the presidential estate, allowing people of Kiev their first view of the opulent life that Yanukovych had led.

It was also reported that Yanukovych had verbally agreed to resign. Several opposition members of parliament confirmed that Yanukovych had voiced to them that he had resigned. But his loyal advisor, Hanna Herman, said that he had in fact not done so.

When you’re presented with two poems to read, by a natural-born poet, and you’ve read a couple of other poems of his before this, and now you can’t decide which one you’re most in love with, and each seems better than the last, and you kind of see your own life in some of the words …

… well, I guess that tells you a bit of what happens to me when I read your poems, LL! Keep ‘em coming, please.

I think my watching Chelsea will be on hold. Ukraine is more important.

As I said last night, what’s amazing is that this has happened before. Yanukovych was ousted in 2004 during the Orange Revolution. And yet enough voters forgot his original kleptocracy to elect him again.

Thanks, LL. In the context of all that has happened in the hours after that first appeared, Putin truly is living a ‘nightmare’ – what a fitting and ironic way that Ukrainians have ‘closed’ his Sochi Olympics :)